Digimon Diary: Reliable Side
by Angel Weasel-Woman
Summary: <html><head></head>A retelling of Adventure through Joe's eyes that explores a few things the show may have missed... and gives you some more insight into the character, per my usual headcanon. Several pairings! Yaoi in later chapters.</html>
1. 00 Prologue

A/N: This is a companion piece meant to be read alongside S. Walden's "Digimon Diary: Friendship Side" and follows our headcanon, but can be read without following either. This fanfiction will draw from the anime (dub and sub), the Digimon Memorial Albums, the first two volumes of the official novelization, and possibly some events from the PSP game "Digimon Adventure". This version is a retelling of Digimon Adventure from Joe's point of view. This fiction does assume you have seen the entirety of season one / Adventure and possibly Our War Game. Perhaps one day, I'll make a few bonus chapters to cover Zero Two as well, since the "present" takes place after the epilogue.

Warnings: Mature subjects will be handled in this fic, but it won't be the main focus. There will be yaoi in later chapters as well.

Pairings: Jyoumato (Yamato x Jyou), Taishirou (Taichi x Koushiro), one sided Sorato (Sora x Yamato), and Takari (Takeru x Hikari) with hints of Sorami (Sora x Mimi), Mimato (Mimi x Yamato), Yamakeru (Yamato x Takeru) and of course, Taito (Taichi x Yamato). Most of the latter depends how much you wanna read into things.

* * *

><p>Chapter 0: Medications<p>

My door was closed, but I could still hear my father's voice.

"I can't believe you! How could you throw away his future for some silly whim of yours?!"

I flipped the page of my algebra textbook, ignoring the sound of broken glass. Mom must be feeling better to be throwing plates.

"It's not a silly whim! God Himself told me that he needed to go!" I chewed the end of my pen, solving for "x" as Mom yelped. My father didn't hit her too often, as the few times she could leave the apartment he didn't want anyone to see her bruises. She screamed and there was a _whump_ as he threw her, probably onto her couch.

"You need to _listen_, Joanne!" I knew that tone. He was most likely shaking some sense into her. "God does not talk to you! You need to take your medicine!"

"No!" I spit into my trashcan as the pen exploded in my mouth. The taste of black ink was bitter and I tossed it away to the sound of Mom biting my father's hand. He must have had her mouth covered to keep her from yelling too loudly. We didn't need the neighbors coming over again to ask about the screaming. Though Mr. Izumi had been very polite, and had easily accepted my excuse for my black eye the last time. "I hate that stuff. It's poison! You're trying to poison me!"

I sighed. I knew what was coming next.

"Joe! Get in here, now!"

I closed my textbook, not bothering to keep my page. I wouldn't be coming back to my room for a while yet. I winced as I stood, the bruises on the small of my back protesting any movement. It had only been that morning when my father had taken his belt to me for not making a high enough grade on the mock exam yesterday. The lock on my door was loose, but it was better than nothing when Mom tried to wander around at midnight.

I inched down the hall, keeping my head bowed. My father didn't like it when I looked him in the eye. He was standing over Mom, holding her down on the loveseat by her shoulders and one hand was bloody. She must have gotten a good chunk out of him. I could see her eyes, wild and bright, as they landed on me, and all I wanted to do was go back to my room and ignore everyone. I had an entrance exam on Sunday, and if I didn't make top marks my back would be the least of my worries.

"My baby," Mom crooned. She gave me one of her special smiles – the one that showed too much teeth and crinkled her eyes closed. It was extra creepy this time since my father's blood was still dripping off her chin. It made me want to puke. "Sweetie, Mommy only wanted the best for her special baby boy..."

"Joe!" my father snapped. I stood tall, though I wanted nothing more than to pass out. The smell of gore had finally reached me, and it was making my stomach churn. "Her pills are in the kitchen. Bring them to me, _now_!"

I yelped and ran toward the kitchen. I could already feel the hitch of asthma deep in my lungs, and I cursed that I'd forgotten my inhaler in my room. There was a pharmacy bag on the counter that I ripped open. Little beige pills rattled around in a full bottle. Quetiapine Fumarate. My father had changed her prescription again. He's a doctor, he _knows_ that he has to give the old stuff a chance to work. Mom was squealing and I could hear her thrashing on the couch, working her way up to full-on rampage. If I didn't bring her pills soon, there was no telling what my father would do to her. I shook out four pills and hurried to the living room, wheezing and gasping. My asthma was always worsened by Mom's fits.

My father had her on her back on the sofa, pinning her arms to her sides with his thighs. His glasses were on the floor, and he was sweating, using his hands to pry open her mouth. He'd nearly lost his fingers that way last year when she'd had an allergic reaction to her lithium.

"Joe, get in here!" he screamed. I ran over, almost collapsing on the arm of the sofa and held out my hand to show the medication. He nodded and I dropped the pills in Mom's mouth. She made a terrifying gurgling noise as she tried to spit them out, but my father shut her mouth, holding her chin up with his bloody hand and pinching her nose with the other. She would either swallow her medicine, or pass out. At this point, either was possible.

As it happened, she did both. She stilled suddenly, eyes rolling back in her skull. My father was breathing almost as hard as I was, waiting to see if she was tricking him again. Slowly, he backed away, opening her mouth gently to make sure she hadn't swallowed her tongue. The muscle was in it's place and the pills were gone, thankfully. My father wiped the sweat from his forehead and climbed off her, straightening his shirt and tie.

"Joe, keep an eye on your mother tonight and make sure she doesn't have any adverse reactions. I have to go to work, a double shift tonight, and tomorrow we'll discuss this... mess your mother made." He couldn't mean her medication, could he? Was he actually going to sit down and discuss it, like a family should? "We can't have you going to some _summer camp_ when you're supposed to be taking an entrance exam. I'll have to pull you out tomorrow morning." Of course.

Wait. Summer camp?


	2. 01 And So It Begins

Episode 1: Summertime Blues

As it was, there was nothing my father could do about summer camp. Mom had used a credit card we didn't know she even had to pay in full for a week of "outdoor adventures and fun!" as the brochure put it. My father had pleaded and screamed and everything in between, but short of me being on my deathbed in the hospital (which I'm surprised he didn't try and put me there) I was required to show. However, and he was incredibly proud of himself for this, he'd managed to secure me a position as a group leader. At least this way I "wouldn't be wasting a week of my life on ridiculous nonsense" and could even put it on my middle school applications. I couldn't believe it – _me_ in charge of a group of kids my age. I couldn't even keep myself in order, how was I supposed to keep track of a bunch of children? I guess I could always use the lessons learned at home.

Somehow, I doubted that hitting the others when they spoke out of line would make such a good impression on the camp staff.

I was sitting in the kitchen, emergency bag supplied by the camp emptied out on the table, checking off the list to make sure everything was there, when Shin walked by, yawning. I was never too sure where he went when he came home from school. To be honest, though, I never really paid too much attention to anyone in my family. My father was always either at work, or holed up in his bedroom, on-call from the hospital. Mom was either manic and flying up the walls, or depressed and not wanting to move from her spot on the floor by her bedroom door, or she was stuffed full of medication and staring blankly at the wall from the couch like she was now. And Shuu was off gallivanting somewhere around Kyoto with some college professor and any time he tried to call home, my father would throw the phone against the wall and I would end up with new bruises.

"What's that?" Shin asked, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"It's my summer camp to-do list. I have to get everything ready before the bus gets here in," I checked my watch, "fifteen minutes."

"Huh." Shin grabbed the pamphlet from my hands. I tried to grab it back, but he used his big brother powers to hold it too high over my head for me to reach. "I didn't know your school was hosting a summer camp."

"My what?" I used his momentary yawn to jump up and grab the papers. That was a bad idea. I wheezed suddenly as my asthma grabbed me by the lungs. My inhaler was in my pocket though, as a stroke of genius this morning had hit me – maybe my life-saving medicine should be, I don't know, close at hand? The mist was bitter in my mouth, but I accepted it along with everything else my life threw at me. There was nothing I could do about any of it, anyway.

"The summer camp – it's being hosted by Odaiba Elementary." Shin pointed to the subtext at the bottom of the brochure. I hadn't even bothered to look at it. "That's were you go. Isn't it?" He obviously didn't pay attention to our family either.

"I guess I just never noticed." I shrugged. "It's not like I ever had time to talk about any of this with anyone. I just go where I'm told to."

Shin gave me a weird look, like he was going to say something but a belch was waiting for him to open his mouth. I didn't want to deal with whatever noises were going to come out of him, so I just stood and gathered my things. "I need to make sure this stuff works, and then I have to be outside for the bus. So just... move aside, Shin. Please?"

It was odd. Normally he tried to do the "brother" thing and mess with me, but today he just put his hands up in surrender and walked away. He must have heard Mom's tantrum last night. Either way, he was leaving me alone to get my effects in order, and just in time too. I was able to throw everything back in the bag and run to the corner just as the bus pulled around. There was a short kid boarding with me, his mop of bright red hair sticking out like a sore thumb despite him being small enough to disappear into the small crowd. I watched him for a moment as he pulled the satchel on his back around to his lap, checking its contents. A yellow Pineapple brand laptop, a giant hunk of metal that looked more like a murder weapon than a cell phone, various cords and cables, and a headset like what telemarketers wore. What a weird kid, I thought. He must be going to some computer camp. It was probably a lot nicer than where I was going – out in the wilderness with bugs and bears and junk like that. I shuddered at the thought of all that... _nature_ I would have to endure this week and sat heavily back in my seat. The bag in my lap was lumpy and heavy and the strain of wearing it around my shoulder was sure to agitate my bruising something fierce. Not to mention the myriad of lower back and shoulder problems I was sure to gain.

The bus bumped along, going far past the elementary school and out into the mountains. I glanced at the pamphlet, trying to find something to do as we crept slowly out further and further from civilization. Mikami Canyon was where the camp was being held. Camp directors: Mr. Fujiyama and Mrs. Toriyumi. Available to grades four through six. A week-long outdoor experience, geared toward fostering a sense of responsibility for each other and for nature.

Great. Screaming brats and bug bites. This was going to be _much_ more fun than taking an entrance exam and making sure Mom didn't have a seizure from her medication. I wanted to sigh and pout out the window, but that kid with all the electronic equipment still hadn't exited the bus and I thought I saw a flash of the same brochure in his pocket that I had. If he was going to the same camp as me, I couldn't let him see me be unreliable. Especially if he was in my group – how would I ever earn the respect I needed to lead if he knew I was pouting about going to some secluded serial killer camp in the middle of nowhere.

The bus ride had just tipped over from boring to unbearable when we came to a shuddering halt. The driver opened the door and stood, watching as we filed out onto the campgrounds. The late summer air was unseasonably chilly, and for one I was glad my father made me wear this dumb-looking Ivy League sweater vest. At least I was slightly warmer than I would have been, and hopefully it would keep the chill from triggering my asthma.

The small redheaded boy exited the bus quietly, looking around like he wanted to be anywhere but here. '_I know how you feel, buddy_,' I thought. Unlike me, however, he noticed two kids he must have known and hurried over to stand next to them awkwardly. An auburn haired girl, more brownish than the short kid's hair, was laughing at her brunette friend. She was cute, I guess, in a really tomboyish way. I mean, it's not like I really looked at girls too much, despite the occasional teasing from Shin when he was awake. Her friend, however, wasn't bad to look at, despite the mass of hair that must have weighed more than a small dog. He had a brightness in his eyes and even from all the way over here I could feel his warm personality shining out.

I blushed and turned away. I couldn't spend all my time checking out guys – I had to report to Mr. Fujiyama. And besides, it would be terrible if word got to my father about my, ah, preferences. It's not like he has a problem with gay people – I can't count the number of times he's had the hospital director and his husband over for dinner – it's just that he would have a problem with _me_ being gay. He's spent my whole life planning every detail of my future, including already booking my wedding chapel and even telling the nurses in the maternity ward what day my wife would come in during labor. He's even begun telling his coworkers about my eventual son, who he'd named Shou, after himself of course.

I shook the thoughts of boys and sons and my father from my head, grabbing the strap of the emergency supply bag tight and heading toward the cabins. I needed to check in and get my group leader armband.

"Mr. Fujiyama?" I called when I got to the cabin. He was sitting at a table, talking to a tall woman. She must have been Mrs. Toriyumi. He looked over at me, confused at first, but then he saw the bag around my shoulder.

"Ah, you must be Joe Kido." He stood and walked over to shake my hand. "I had an interesting conversation with your father." Oh great. What did he say about me now? Probably to keep an eye on me in case I try and wander into a patch of poison ivy. There was a ringing and Mrs. Toriyumi pulled out a clunky cell phone, speaking into it with hushed whispers. Mr. Fujiyama just smiled and led me to the table where he handed me a clip board. "Just fill this out and we'll get your group in order."

I didn't have a place to sit, let alone take my bag off, so I stood awkwardly next to him and filled out all the appropriate boxes with my chicken scratch. Hopefully these pages would never reach my father's eyes so he would never have the change to berate me for my handwriting. Mr. Fujiyama was starting to look bored, as Mrs. Toriyumi was still talking on the phone, looking at me every so often. Its was an odd feeling, knowing I was being talked about but unable to hear what exactly was being said.

I finished the paperwork at the same time that Mrs. Toriyumi snapped shut her phone. I was handing the clipboard back to Mr. Fujiyama (who was trying to balance a pencil on his nose) when she spoke to me.

"That was your father, Joe." She didn't look happy, and I could figure why. My father never really spoke to women as equals, especially if they had a high position. Something about them not being able to handle a man's workload. It sounded like a bunch of crap, but I couldn't say anything about it. Not to him. "He wants you to call every morning to ensure you're taking you responsibilities seriously."

Great. Now I looked like a two-year-old who couldn't handle life on my own. Good thing I wouldn't have any control of it anyway.

I tried to fight back a blush and bowed to her. "I'll do my best to prevent any inconveniences."

Mrs. Toriyumi gave me an odd look, her lips twisted. She probably thought I was a trouble maker now. Great, now I'd have to work twice as hard to stay on her good side. But Mr. Fujiyama came to my rescue, patting me on the back and tucking his nose-pencil behind his ear. He quickly pinned a blue "Leader" band around my sleeve and nodded to himself.

"Everything looks in order here." He rifled through the pages, pulling one out and handing it to me. "This is your group you're in charge of. Normally, we reserve this position for our graduated students who have come back and want to enjoy our presence again." I had no idea if he was joking or not. "But since Mr. Kido was so insistent, we agreed." God, if my father knew anyone had just called him _mister_... It made me shudder to think about it. "Our faith is in you."

Oh, God, I'm going to let everyone down so fast.

That was all I could think as I was pushed out into the campsite. I could hear Mr. Fujiyama laughing and saying something to Mrs. Toriyumi as he closed the door behind me. I swallowed hard, trying not to look like I was completely out of place, and instead turned my attention to the paper I'd been given.

Kido Group.

Leader: Joe Kido

Members:

Emergency Supplies: Mimi Tachikawa

Chef: Michelle Migawa

Cleaning: Kiki Sujina

Laundry: Penelope Garza

Great. I'm going to be surrounded by girls all week. Hopefully one of them would be that tomboy from earlier, so I wouldn't have to listen to just fashion and jewelry and boys, or whatever it was girls talk about with each other. Though, boys wouldn't be that bad of a subject to talk about...

"Oh, Taako!" I heard a peal of shrill laughter and I winced. Hopefully my group wouldn't be that... high-pitched. "That's terrible! Don't you think so, Mimi?"

Mimi? I checked my list. She's the one who's supposed to be carrying this bag! I looked over at the gaggle of girls standing near the buses. The one who stood out immediately was a girl, almost my height, dolled up all in pink with a huge pink ten gallon hat hanging around her neck. She looked like she was ready for fashion week, not summer camp. She was smiling distantly as her friends talked to her, pointing at the other campers. One in particular was pointing at the redheaded boy from earlier, and laughing. It lifted my heart a little to see her not laugh at him, only for it to drop when I heard her shill voice ask, "What about him?" I bet dogs could hear her from miles around.

She was pointing at someone across the grounds, but I didn't want to get distracted. I was the leader of her group, and she was in charge of this heavy bag. So I set my face in what I hoped was an "I'm the leader, you have to listen to me" expression and walked over to her.

"Miss. Tachikawa?"

She looked at me with large honey-gold eyes. If I'd been attracted to girls, I'm sure I would have melted. "Yes?" She fluttered her eyes at me. "Can I help you?"

"Miss. Tachikawa, you are in charge of the Emergency Supplies for our group, and I'm here to give you the bag."

She looked at me as I took the strap from around my shoulder and handed it to her. She was already carrying a large bag, and I felt a small twinge of guilt at making her carry two satchels.

"That looks heavy. I don't want to." And with that, she turned to her friends and began walking away.

I stopped feeling guilty after that. Instead, I tried not to huff too loudly and attempted to follow after her. A group of kids of various ages suddenly galumphed between us, though, and I quickly lost sight of her, thought the sound of her voice carried over on a sudden blast of freezing air. I shivered, pulling the bag back over my shoulder. I really should look around and try and find my group's cabin, or at least try and find my other girls.

Of course, I managed to get lost. The almighty Joe, wanderer of foreign lands because he took a wrong turn! The skies overhead were darkening and despite this morning's summer heat, I could feel snowflakes beginning to drift down and swirl around my ankles. I'd managed to wander up a hill, only to find nothing but a small shrine and wilderness. Great, now I was going to be eaten by a bear with some spirit laughing at me from beyond.

Actually, I _could_ hear laughter. Perfect! I was already dead! I opened my mouth to scream, only for a chill of snow to fly into my mouth and freeze my throat.

A wheeze and a puff of medicine later, I walked through the sudden inch of snow on the ground and stumbled into the shrine, hoping to at least keep warm until I could figure out how to get back to the campsite.

"I can't believe it's freaking snowing," I grumbled as I entered, taking the bag from my shoulder and throwing it on the ground. My back was killing me, and I could already feel my shoulder giving out.

"You have wonderful legs, Sora," I heard and I finally looked up. My breath caught in my chest, and I knew I was blushing when I realized I wasn't alone in the shrine. Mimi was chatting animatedly (at least on her end) with the auburn haired girl from earlier, and the redheaded boy was huddled in the corner, looking as agitated as a wet cat. But what really made my face flush was the beautiful blonde boy hovering over a small child just beside me. His blue eyes were like solid ice as he looked at me and my mind screamed, _Say something! Anything!_ But I couldn't make my stupid tongue move. He blinked and then turned back to the child, encouraging him by pointing at something on his game system.

There goes my chance at ever talking to cute boys. I suck at being gay.

I took that frustration at myself and turned it to the pink-clad girl. "Mimi, we should head back to our group. I'm in charge of you all and you'll get me in trouble hiding out up here to do God knows what." She puffed her cheeks out like an irritated mouse. But I wasn't going to be swayed by cute faces. Well, at least not a girl's cute face. "Now, will you please cover some of your responsibility and take this bag-"

"Hey, Iz!" I recognized the voice from somewhere, but I couldn't quite place it. "Come check this out!"

There was finally a spark of brightness in the redheaded boy's eyes, though he quickly looked down, securing away his laptop and politely passing by me to emerge into the stilled snowstorm. The sunlight almost blinded me when the door to the shrine opened, and I yelped as the small child shoved by me to run outside. My back throbbed, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out, instead rubbing near my bruises as nonchalantly as I could. The beautiful blonde looked at me momentarily before following the child and I could only imagine what he was thinking.

"_He looks like an old man, hunched over like that. I hope he doesn't infect me with his oldness."_

Yeah, I'm sure that's right. There's no way he could think about me the way I was suddenly thinking about him.

The girls followed at an easy pace, Mimi completely ignoring me as I grabbed the bag one more time. Hopefully, once we got back to the cabins, she would wise up and take her share of the responsibilities.

"It's pretty," I heard one of the kids say as I shielded my eyes from the sun reflecting off the snow. When I blinked through the glare on my glasses, I finally noticed our whole group.

The two blondes. One older and who's every mild glance at me made my heart flutter, and one younger who looked far too happy to be playing in some freak summertime snow piles.

The girls. Mimi, who refused to acknowledge me, much less the bag I was carrying for her, and the tomboy who would look much cuter if she was an actual boy.

The computer kid with all his electronic equipment tucked back into it's satchel on his back, standing next to the cute boy with the huge hair I'd seen earlier.

The only thing I could think upon seeing this group for the first time was, _I hope none of them tell Mr. Fujiyama I let them wander off into the wilderness unsupervised_. Because, obviously, what else was there to think about them. It's not like I knew what would come next.

Even as the sky turned green, all I could think about was how I could convince all of them to come back to the campsite with me when I wasn't even too sure where it was from here. The only thing that managed to grab my attention by the throat was when a blinding light from the sky suddenly buried itself at me feet. I'll admit it. I screamed like a little girl. At least, I screamed louder than Mimi.

Then again, who wouldn't scream when they thought God Himself was shooting light at them?

"What in the world was that?" I heard the girl who wasn't Mimi ask. She was looking at a hole in the snow by her feet and I noticed that there was one by all of us.

"Look... were those meteors?" Mimi said.

The two cute boys had already reached into the ground, pulling out strange metallic devices. The girls exchanged glances, but they, too, grabbed whatever machines they were, brushing off the snow and inspecting them. I spared a look to the redhead, but he merely blinked at me as thought I was beneath him, and took his machine.

Well, these kids could melt their hands off, or whatever it is that space metal does to humans, but there was no way I was going to dig in the ground and pull out whatever had fallen to the ground. No way. Not at all.

I almost had a heart attack and died when a bright glow emerged from the hole in front of me and a device, all my own, began floating up, settling into my palm all on its own.

My mouth was agape and I was going to yell, scream, _anything_ about this weird magic machine when the ground began to tremble. I could feel asthma grip the bottom of my lungs in fear as the sky suddenly glowed and split apart. I felt darkness take over and I prayed, _Just let this all be a dream. Let me wake up at home with my crazy mom and terrible family. Please?_

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><p>When I opened my eyes, there was a funny feeling in my chest. It felt like I was still suffering an asthma attack, except I could still breathe. Not well, of course, but more like I was waiting on my inhaler to kick in, which was weird. I hadn't used my medicine yet – I'd been blacked out.<p>

Wait.

What just happened?

I sat up too quickly and held me head as my vision spun. I remembered a wall of water, like a tsunami pouring over me, and then... Nothing.

I adjusted my glasses (thank God they hadn't been scratched up, as my emergency pair was a few years old and everything still had a haze to it) and looked around. The chill and the snow of the campgrounds was gone, and I was surrounded by what looked like rainforest and heat. The emergency supply bag was next to me, it's contents semi-spilled out on the ground. If any dirt got into those food rations and ruined them, the camp leaders were going to be outraged. I tried to stand, but my back was in complete agony from the beating and the falling and the heavy bag. It was enough to make me curse outloud.

"Damnit." That felt nice. I couldn't curse at home since either my father would backhand me and tell me I "wasn't man enough" to use those words or Mom would start crying at how foul her "baby's language was". Well, neither was here and, as far as I could tell, I was alone. "Damnit, damnit!"

I don't know whether it was the cursing or just the not moving, but I was finally able to drag myself to my feet and gather the spilled supplies. I inspected each heat sealed ration, brushing off the dirt and surprising lack of ants and placing them back in the bag. That strange metal thing that had fallen from the sky was nearby too and, with a moment's hesitation, I clipped it onto my bag. The heat was uncomfortable in my sweater and I made a face. It was warm enough back in the snow, why did it have to get so hot all of a sudden?

There was a sudden sound, like the humming of a hornet's nest and I looked around. The bag was once again heavy on my shoulder, and I gripped the strap tight. The ground vibrated, rattling me to my chest and reminding my suddenly of my inhaler. I _still_ hadn't used it and I was breathing fairly well. It was the oddest feeling. I wondered if this was what it was like to be a normal kid.

"Joe?"

An unfamiliar voice called out my name. It was nasally, like whoever it was had a cold or a broken nose. Maybe it was another group leader? Great! Now I could get back to the actual campgrounds instead of whatever weirdo forest this was.

Hold on.

What about those other kids? I needed to find them or else I would get in trouble! Other camper! Stay away from me for a while!

"Joe! It's you!"

Aw man, he knows me from somewhere. This won't end well. I swallowed hard and looked around. (Maybe he didn't know I was with the other kids. I could just pretend I'd never seen them before… Right?)

"Hello?" I called. "Who is that?"

"It's me!" That didn't help at all. I barely paid attention to the other kids at my school.

I bit my lip and frowned, crossing my arms. I still couldn't find the other camper. I could hear the rustling of leaves and all of a sudden there was a rotten-fish smell overpowering my senses. It reminded me of the time when I was really little and Mom was still well enough to drive. She took me to the beach where the seaweed had piled up and in the sun it had started to rot, drawing out all the crabs and seagulls, and the stench had made me puke in the car. Mom had laughed at me and told me it was all right, but when we got home, my father had almost broken my arm.

I could still feel the twinge of pain when a rubbery touch on my cheek drew me back to the present. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a blurry gray-brown thing just kind of... floating next to me. I turned my head and looked straight into a row of sharp needle-like teeth and wide blue eyes.

"Joe!" The teeth gnashed out my name with another breath of sun-baked seaweed and I felt faint. Like the time Shin had fallen and knocked his head against the dining room table, spewing blood all over the floor. I felt a shudder crawl up my spine and my vision began to sparkle as I knew I was about to pass out again.

"Joe, you're finally here!"

In my tunnel vision I could finally see what it was that was talking to me. It was like some kind of seahorse and seal had a mutant fish-baby that could fly. It was grinning and I knew it was going to eat me. So I did the only thing I could.

"Ahhh!"

I turned and tore out of the clearing, screaming my head off. I could feel my asthma creeping up on me, but, for some reason, it refused to take hold. Which was well enough for me – I didn't need to fall over wheezing while being chased.

"Joe! Wait for me!"

I glanced over my shoulder and saw it flying after me.

"No!" I screamed. "It's impossible!It's just too... unrealistic!"

"Why are you running away?" it laughed. An evil, maniacal thing. It was a demon to it's core!

I tore through the trees and all the terrible monster did was giggle and zoom after me. The bag was banging roughly against my back, but even the pain of my bruises couldn't stop me.

"Please, I'm begging you!" I sobbed and my voice broke. "Go away! Just leave me alone!"

My foot caught in a hole or on a root or some other horror movie cliché, and I fell flat on my face. The seal monster flapped its flippers (or wings or whatever they were) and landed on my shoulders, and it was the oddest thing. The tightness in my lungs that would have otherwise led to a full-on wheezing fit suddenly lifted, and I breathed better for the first time in my life than I ever had before. The sudden lightness in my chest was enough to make me look up and finally focus on my surroundings.

Standing there, looking at me like I was a giant doofus, were those kids from summer camp, each with their own oddly shaped monster. At least, most of them were there. They were standing around talking to each other, looking calm as anything, as though it were an everyday occurrence to be whisked from a summer snowfield to a jungle populated by monsters.

And there he was. That beautiful blonde. He looked at me once and then turned to the cute brunette. I must have looked so pathetic for him to not spare me a second glance. Wait. Why was I thinking of cute boys when I was going to be attacked any moment by some crazy mutant?!

"Where's that girl?" I heard him ask. The monster nuzzled my neck, probably looking for an artery to pierce, and I couldn't help myself.

"Nevermind that, what are these things?!"

The creatures beamed, their eyes sparkling. Was it malice I saw in there? Or something else? "We're Digimon: Digital Monsters!"

That didn't do anything to ease my fears. It was right there in what they called themselves: monsters. Monsters! Oh, God, they can talk.

"What is happening?" I almost sobbed. "I don't even know who you guys are!"

I was screaming at the other kids, but the creatures had their own thoughts and they quickly presented themselves.

Koromon, a pink soccer ball. He was bouncing eagerly around the cute boy who introduced himself as Tai.

Yokomon, a flower bulb creature who was nuzzling the tomboy named Sora.

Motimon, who looked like jelly brought to life and acted like the redheaded Izzy was the most interesting person in the world.

Tokomon, a white hamster with teeth like a great white shark who was playing pat-a-cake with the youngest, TK.

Tsunomon, a blushing fuzzy ball with a wicked horn behing held by the beautiful Matt.

And finally, Bukamon who hung around my neck and acted like every last thing was a game.

"Mimi," Sora said suddenly. I'd almost forgotten about her. "Mimi is missing."

"She's in my grade," Izzy chimed in softly. "But I haven't seen her, to answer your question."

"Somebody help!" It was that same dog-whistle voice from the camp grounds. The others looked concerned and I'll admit I pouted. Sure, when I ran around screaming for help, I was a nuisance, but if it was a girl calling for help? We have to save her!

To be fair, we did need to save her.

The others took off into the woods and, not wanting to be left alone, I followed. I tried to tell myself it was because I needed to look out for them, but I knew it was because I was a huge coward who would probably fall off a cliff without supervision. Not like they needed to know that...

We found Mimi running toward us, followed by a green sproutling with legs that she would later call Tanemon. Tai tried to calm her down, telling he with an easy going smile, "It's ok!"

Then, that buzzing sound, the terrible bass like the cars that zoomed by in the dead of night outside my window, and the trees behind us were torn asunder as a red stag beetle, bigger than an American car, burst forth. It gave a growling scream and its pincers snapped angrily.

So that's what she was so scared of. Not Tanemon. It was getting hard to feel more terror now than the previous moments. Now, I was just kind of feeling numb. Without a thought, we turned and ran, stumbling over ourselves and our Digimon, crashing through the forest until we emerged to the jutting edge of a cliff.

"We're going to die!" I moaned at noone in particular. Bukamon, having ridden me the whole way, gave a growl. It was a scarey noise, and it took me a moment to realize it wasn't directed at me.

"No-mon threatens my Tamer," he hissed, flapping his flippers. What was a Tamer? He took to the air, rising off my shoulders and I was almost bowled over as the faint feeling of asthma from before gripped my lungs with a ferocity I'd never felt before. I tried to take as deep a breath as I could, but I was already getting dizzy. I'd still never had the chance to use my medicine...

The first Digimon to attack was Koromon, but Bukamon and the others weren't too far behind. Streams of pink bubbles bounced off the beetle monster, making it step back momentarily. But with a swipe of his pincers, all our tiny creatures were flung to the ground and the sound of it brought back a flash of my father's fist connecting with my chest. I knew that pain well and I felt it deep in my heart.

"Bukamon!" I crawled over to my new buddy, reaching out to gingerly touch his rubbery side. The tightness in my lungs eased momentarily, but the ache in my chest worsened, as though I could share his pain. "Are you... ok?"

"I am now... that you're with me."

I thought I heard a shrill noise, like a wounded bird singing, and a bright light filled the sky. Rainbow colored beams engulfed each of our Digimon and I heard them screaming in exaltation. There was a surge of warmth and I felt adrenalin pump through my veins, blasting away my asthma faster than any inhaler ever could.

"Bukamon Digivole to... Gomamon!"

The light cleared away and where my gray fish monster once was stood an adorably fluffy white seal with purple spots and a bright orange mohawk. The others had transformed as well, from useless looking, mostly round balls of fur to tough looking lizards and bugs and birds. They attacked with renewed strength, my little Bukamon (Gomamon, now?) even using his own small body to trip the giant bug so the others could call upon whatever magic they used to control oddly-colored flames. The red beetle stumbled and fell back, destroying a brush of trees, and our little monsters, tired and beat up but grinning like they ruled the world, ran back to us.

Bukamon, looking unsteady on suddenly huge paws with long black claws, tripped over himself and came to a stumbling stop in front of me. He looked up with sparkling emerald eyes and I knew, that warmth in my soul could never come from anyone or anything else.

"Joe," he said, grinning. It was adorable, he still had that stuffed-nose voice despite his growth. "Is this too unrealistic?"

"I've never seen anything like it before in my life," I admitted, adjusting my glasses. "I don't even want to know if this is real or a dream."

He wiggled his long white tail and I just about died from how cute it was. It was even cuter than Tai!

But our joy was cut short as that all-too-familiar growling reverberated the ground and the beetle arose from the trees like some horrific zombie movie. Bukamon bristled, his mohawk bristling into orange needles. The other Digimon stood ready to attack again, but the beetle just screamed and dug its pincers into the ground.

Shit! The ledge!

The cliff beneath us trembled and I grabbed Bukamon tight. He turned an eye toward me and his expression softened into a small smile. "Don't worry, Joe. I won't let anything hurt you ever again."

Even as the ground under our feet collapsed, dropping us into the sky, I've never felt safer than I did with my little Digimon looking at me. I could feel the wind whipping at my hair and tugging at my shorts and as we fell, I glanced to the others. Matt had turned his terrified eyes to me, and for a moment I was lost in them.

"Don't worry, Matt," I found myself saying. He blinked, and I wasn't sure if he could hear me. I nodded to Bukamon and he made a face, a grimace that could have passed for a smile and that was enough to make my heart flutter.


	3. The Birth of Greymon

Episode 2: Fun in the Sun

I hit the water, hard. Amazingly, I remembered to grab my glasses and hold them tight before I thought to get a deep breath. I guess I was too busy screaming while falling. I gagged on a mouthful of water and flailed. In a brief moment of clarity, I cursed my inability to swim. If only I'd bugged Mom to take me to the pool for lessons when she was better, or irritated Shin or Shuu into teaching me. But nothing would have helped me, I'm sure, because all I ever did was sink like a rock.

"Marching Fishes!"

The increasingly familiar voice was dull through the water, but within moments, I felt something wriggling and jumping push me up, breaking me through the surface. I coughed and gagged, spitting up water, hoping to refill my lungs with air. I shook my head dry and looked around as bodies fell from the sky to land on... Fish?

Sure enough, as each of the others and their monsters fell, they were quickly caught by a rainbow of fish so closely grouped together that I was actually making a puddle on them. My not-so-little-anymore Bukamon was grinning at me and he said, "See, told you I had it covered."

"Where are we going?" Matt asked, being answered suddenly as we were flung onto the riverbank by a giant wave. The big beetle had fallen in after we did and the shock wave had finally reached us.

"What happened here?" I asked, upending my emergency bag. The rations were safe, thank God for plastic wrap, as was the first aid kid, my penknife, and my emergency glasses. My homework and textbooks, however, were ruined. I tried not to think of what my father would do when he found out I had to redo _all_ of it. Despite their dripping, I stuffed them back in the bag and slung it around my shoulder. My back wasn't aching right now, but I'm sure that was just the adrenalin. I'd be feeling it again soon.

"Those are my friends," Bukamon said, happy as a lark. "I can call on them if I ever need any help."

"Shoo Shoobeedoo," I hear Mimi singsong.

Tai laughed, a breathless noise that let me know he was just as glad to be alive as the rest of us and he, well, I can't really say he sang – more like the noise a cat would make when it got ran over by a bike: "Call upon the Sea Ponies when you're in distress!"

That noise certainly brought down his cuteness factor.

Mimi squealed, bouncing in her boots. I realized then that I was the only one who had actually fallen in the water. Lucky jerks. "I knew I wasn't the only one who was thinking that!"

I tuned them out as the giant plant Tanemon had turned into began questioning Mimi. Sora, in no mood for any of their childishness, looked at her bird-Yokomon and asked it, "So, what happened to you?"

"We evolved," answered the dinosaur who had been Koromon.

The Digimon attempted to explain what had happened to them, something called Digivolving. Not only had they changed physically, but their names were different too. My Bukamon was now Gomamon.

Motimon to Tentomon. Tokomon to Patamon. Koromon to Agumon. Tsunomon to Gabumon. Tanemon to Palmon. And Yokomon to Biyomon.

Apparently there was something about us specifically that made these guys bigger way faster than any others. I looked at Gomamon and thought, _'There's no way _I _did that. Anything from me would only make you weaker...'_ It was probably something from one of the others that had helped him.

"So what are we going to do?" Matt was asking. "We can't just stand around and wait for something to come kill us, like bug-brain."

Kill us?! I can't let these kids get killed! If they do, I'll be the one blamed and then who knows what'll happen when my father finds out. It'll already be a huge mess when he hears that I was cliff diving with odd creatures.

"If only we could find other humans." I didn't want to admit that I didn't think we'd find any. Not with Godzilla-bug somewhere behind us. Then I remembered Mrs. Toriyumi. "O-or a phone. We could call for help. I'm sure we're just off the trail." That sounded believable, right?

"We're in another world, Joe," Matt snapped at me. I gave him a sudden look and swallowed hard. Why was it so difficult to say anything resembling sensible when I was around him? He made a face at me and turned away to start arguing with Tai.

Another world? No way, that can't be! This had to be some elaborate joke the camp was playing on us. Haha, look at the nerdy kid with the overbearing father squirm. Let's throw more bugs at him and see if he wets his pants before the five-year-old does.

"Let's explore around here," Matt was almost yelling at Tai.

"No!" I yelped. "We should wait for someone to come rescue us." Surely the counselors wouldn't keep up this charade all night?

"Noone's coming for us," Matt hissed with an all too real malice. It was like I'd suggested we find that bug and ask him for a pony ride. It actually kind of hurt that I'd offended him so easily. I wanted to apologize, but the Digimon were talking again and he wasn't paying attention to me anymore.

"There's never been anyone like you guys before. Only Digimon exist here."

I looked at Gomamon, to see if he was just as informative as Agumon. The little seal was yawning in boredom and looking at a yellow flower in the grass. Even in such a serious air, he couldn't be bothered to care! He must have noticed me looking at him because he grabbed the flower in his teeth and happily waddled over to me, spitting it on my shoe. He wiggled his tail like a proud puppy and I absently reached down to muss his ears. He reminded me of Mom's old chihuahua Princess, always yapping and happy to see anyone at all.

I missed that poor mutt...

"... What are we going to do if it gets dark?" Izzy asked in that same soft voice. He sounded like he wanted to be stuck here even less than I did.

"Who says it does?" Matt spat, just as angrily. It was my fault he was so mad, he didn't have to take it out on the poor kid...

I looked at Gomamon, telling him, "What we need to do, is find a cave to hide in. We'll stay there until Mr. Fujiyama, or Mrs. Toriyumi even, comes to find us." Even if this was some screwed up other world, wouldn't the whole camp have come with us?

Gomamon tilted his head. "What's a Misterfujiyama?"

I wasn't even going to dignify that with a response.

"We need to stay in one place and -"

"I saw the ocean when I was falling."

"- just wait to see if help will come for us." I closed my eyes and nodded. That sounded like a definite plan, and if any of the others had any respect for my "leader" armband, they would be listening.

"Joe!" Gomamon called from a distance. "The others are going to leave you behind!"

I yelped and looked around. Sure enough, the other kids were already disappearing into the forest, completely ignoring me! Oh, come on! I don't need this on top of everything else!

"W-wait!"

As it turned out, they weren't too far. Tai had found a pathway that ran right along the edge of the river and, for some reason, we'd all fallen in line behind him and Agumon. Gomamon made a happy murmur and leaped headfirst into the river, swimming alongside me- well, us. Apparently _he_ wasn't terrified of the beetle monster rising up from his watery grave to take vengeance upon us. Wanting to make sure I wasn't about to lose any of them, lest we do find anyone to answer to, I took up the last spot in line. Sora and Izzy were talking about the trees and, as I slowly dried out from my unexpected bath, I felt a tickle in the base of my lungs. My asthma was behaving so oddly, that I didn't want to take a chance at it crippling me.

"I don't recognize the species," Izzy was saying, more to himself, though Sora nodded at him.

It must be these weird trees! These things that looked real, but had an interesting plastic shine to them, with fabric leaves drooping in huge clumps! They must have some stupid pollen that was attacking my bronchi.

"Whatever it is, I can't breathe so well," I grumbled, hearing the tell-tale wheeze. Despite it, I was still amazed at how in control of my breathing I was. Noone ahead of me seemed to care. "This entire place gets on my nerves."

"Your complaining is getting old," came a cold voice suddenly. I adjusted my glasses and looked up. Matt was glaring at me, mouth twisted into some grimace of a smile. Was he still mad at me? I grabbed the strap of my bag, blinking and trying to get my thick mouth to make any kind of noise. He kept glancing over his shoulder at me, as though expecting me to respond. As quickly and as quietly as I could, I grabbed my inhaler and breathed in the disgusting mist.

Nothing turned guys off more than seeing someone chained to a puffer. I think. I'm not too sure what turns guys on or off...

"Why are you way back here, anyway?" Matt asked me.

Why was he so determined to attempt conversation with me? Some twisted pity? An attempt to make me so tongue-tied I could only babble? I _knew_ he could tell I was blushing every time he looked at me – I was pale enough to show it.

He blinked expectantly at me and I said the first thing that came to mind. "Well, I'm the oldest one here, so I should make sure I can keep everyone in my sight."

Great, real smooth. It sounded like I was covering up checking out the girls – well, boys, but he wouldn't know that.

"What does that have to do with anything?" He laughed, a warm, deep noise that my chest feel funny in a way that wasn't related to my asthma. "Everyone can fend for themselves."

Of course he'd say that. Someone like him, sharp eyed and bleached blonde – he was obviously some yakuza-wannabe punk. He probably knew how to make a shiv out of a candle, or whatever it is hoodlums do in their spare time. He probably didn't know the first thing about responsibility for others, or trying so hard to stay on the straight and narrow that things like friends, or dates, or even his own sexuality weren't even under his control. It made me mad all of a sudden, and I mumbled, "Everyone? Or you?"

That did it. He frowned, almost snarled, and turned away sharply. He stormed forward, hunching over TK, and doing his best to ignore me.

Way to go, Joe, you succeeded in pissing off the cutest boy you'd ever seen! At least I still had Tai to crush on for the moment, even if he did have a singing voice like a thousand nails on a thousand chalkboards.

I sighed and looked at my shoes. How was I ever going to get out of this mess? I had to make sure all these other kids got back to camp safely, but there was nothing I could say to make them listen to me. The best I could do was make sure they all stayed together. A quick glance at Gomamon in the water beside us made me feel even worse. Not only did I have these kids to look after, now we each had some kind of Digital Pet, or whatever they called themselves, to looks after. Six was hard enough to deal with, and thirteen was downright ridiculous!

Besides, what would we do with them once we got back to camp? Mr. Fujiyama might think they were cute, but Mrs. Toriyumi would certainly never let them stay with us. She'd call animal control and they'd go straight to the pound, like a bunch of diseased dogs!

It was easier, I decided, to just let Gomamon swim alongside me and, when the time came, I'd tell him goodbye and good luck with that Digivolving stuff.

And whatever that ache in my chest was, well, it certainly wasn't because of having to let him go. It was probably just my asthma trying to get to me again.

"I smell salt water," Gabumon announced suddenly, and I heard Gomamon cheer and splash happily.

"The ocean!" Tai cried.

_Bring. Bring._

"A telephone?" I heard Matt ask.

Wonderful! Despite what Tai said, we surely had just found our campsite! I was certain that was Mrs. Toriyumi's phone, and we'd be away from this weird place!

"Told you that was all we needed!" I yelped. I couldn't help but look at Matt, as though to tell him 'Other world, my foot!' He made a face at me, but I wasn't going to let that get me down. We'd be back to where we were supposed to be, I could get to my group, and hopefully I wouldn't get more than a few bruises once my father found out I'd wandered away!

We ran toward the sound as one, and I didn't even blink at the sight of the beach. The only thing that mattered were those odd phone booths. It wasn't Mrs. Toriyumi like I'd expected, but a phone was a phone! I heard Tai ask to borrow change and Izzy offer his phone card, but I rushed past them to an empty booth as far from the others as I could.

"_He wants you to call every morning to ensure you're taking your responsibilities seriously."_

Dread filled my stomach,but I found myself dialing home anyway. I didn't know the number to the campsite, and I couldn't think of what else to do. Hopefully, he was somewhere public and couldn't scream at me.

I felt Gomamon press against my leg and I looked down into his wide emerald eyes as he asked, "Hey, what's a 'parents'?"

The phone rang and rang.

I could hear the others getting frustrated, saying something about nothing being right. But I couldn't let that happen. I _had_ to call my father, and let him know where I was. If he called the camp and they couldn't find me, he would go ballistic. Oh, God, he might even hurt Mom again! I couldn't live with myself if something I did made him hurt her.

The phone clicked to life and I yelped into the receive, "Hello? Father?" It was rude of me to speak first, but I had to make sure he knew what was going on.

"I'm sorry, but the cat you have dialed is up a tree. Leave a message at the scream. _Eeeyaaahh!_"

I yelped and threw the phone back on the cradle. Great, mom was on the phone! That meant my father was already at work, and I was not looking forward to having to interrupt him. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd called him at the hospital even though the number was written neatly next to the phone cradle. He always told me, "Only call in case of an emergency" while leaving off the "_or else_."

Well, I would think that waking up in a jungle next to a beach would constitute an emergency.

I begged and pleaded with whatever god was listening, though I wasn't sure if I wanted my father to pick up, or not be there. The receiver clicked, and once again I cautiously asked for my father, only to be told by that same voice, "To leave a message, press 1 now. To leave a fingerprint, press 2 now. $15 for the next 3 minutes."

There was no way that was mom. But it did sound like the stupid stuff she would say on one of her highs. Could her medication have possibly pulled her out of her depression so fast? But why would she answer at the hospital, when she'd already answered at home?

That's it! If no sane person will answer the phone at home or at the hospital, then I'll just have to call the school! Surely someone there will care that a group of their students is missing!

It took me three tires to remember the school's number, but _still_ that strange voice yammered at me, "On the phone again, oh, I can't wait to get on the phone again. Please try again."

I slammed the receiver down and Gomamon gave me a funny look. I tried to hide the way my hands shook, or the way I felt like I just wanted to cry. I couldn't risk letting the other kids know how frustrated I was, or else I would never be able to be seen as the one in charge.

"Jyou, you jerk!" Great, there was no use hiding it now. Tai must have seen me throwing the stupid phone. "Bring that bag over here."

Bag?

The emergency bag?

That's right, this thing was Mimi's responsibility! Maybe if I could get her to listen to me, the rest would fall in line! I looked behind me where the rest of the kids were relaxing in the sand, like we were on some twisted vacation. Well, that didn't matter! I'd show them all that I mean business!

I did my best to storm over to them, though my shoes kept slipping in the sand, leading me to more or less shuffle. Wonderful, the all intimidating _shuffle_. I felt like a nerd.

I shoved the bag at Mimi, and she gave me a look like I was handing her a dead cat. "Well," I explained, trying not to snap. "Mimi was supposed to be carrying it!"

Please, Mimi, help me out here. I don't need this on top of everything else right now.

"It's too heavy for a girl like me," she pouted. Damnit! "You're a man, you carry it."

I closed my eyes and sighed. It was barely past noon, and already my blood pressure was through the roof. I knelt in the sand along with the rest of the lazy bums, and opened the bag. It felt nice to not have it's weight pulling on my bruise, and I wasn't sure if it was frustration or exhaustion making my hands shake as I pulled open the flap. Tai suddenly poked his head over my shoulder and I tried to yelp, but being so close to a cute boy made my throat close and it came out as more of a coughing hiccup. Could I be any more pathetic?

I counted out the emergency rations we'd been provided by the camp. I guess they'd expected that some of us would burn our first few meals but get the hang of it quickly because there were only a few small packages. High calorie, small portion things that would probably only make us hungrier, but I counted them out.

"With seven of us, three meals a day, we have..." I moved them around in front of me, trying to visualize what it would be. It didn't look good.

"Enough for three days," Izzy said before I'd finished the piles. He didn't sound too happy.

Three days? Surely we'd find the campsite before that! Or at least other people!

"But if you count in the Digimon, we really only have enough for about a half hour," Sora said, just as miserably.

I'd almost forgotten about them. Gomamon looked like he could eat a horse if he got hungry enough. At least a small one. Plus all the other creatures, and I only realized just _how_ big they'd all gotten. Some of them were taller than TK!

"Don't worry about us," Gabumon said politely, though I could see him eying the heat-treated tuna sandwich. "We Digimon can forage for ourselves."

The other creatures mumbled in agreement. I guess that would work. At least that would leave us humans with enough food to reach some kind of civilization. I was actually starting to feel a little optimistic about this strange place we'd found ourselves in.

Until I heard the sound of plastic ripping, and Agumon's happy munching.

"H-Hey!" I yelped. Tai looked over at me, munching on the cracker that was hanging out of his mouth. Oh no, there was no way he was going to cute himself out of this! "We need to save that! Who knows when we'll find food again?!"

Tai just stuck his tongue out at me, half chewed food falling into the sand. He just kept getting less and less cute as time went by. I was starting to think this was a good thing. I had just opened my mouth to tell him off, to make myself heard for once in my life, when suddenly...

_Panic! Something big under me! Have to get out of the water! Warn the others!_

I heard Gomamon cry out wordlessly from where he'd been floating in the ocean, and in a moment I knew. That had been _his_ terror I'd felt, that somehow his anxiety had come through directly to me. I looked out to the sea, watching his small white body suddenly vanish into the waves and there was an odd sensation, like my lungs were filling with water even though I could breath just fine.

"Something's coming," one of the Digimon cried right as the phone booths began exploding into watery pillars of death! Oh God, what now?!

A creature emerged from the sea, a large pink thing attached to a blue shell larger than some busses I'd seen. One of the Digimon hissed it's name in terror: Shellmon. The thing screamed an odd noise ("Shell-rururu"? Seriously? It's like some kind of TV monster!) and began approaching us, the ground shaking with it's every step.

It was going to attack, and we were all sitting ducks out here in the dunes!

"Come on!" I cried. "We'll be safe on higher ground!" Surely the other kids were behind me as I scrambled up the sand. They knew how to listen to reason, right?

I was suddenly hit with an ice cold blast, a stream of water slamming into my back and onto my bruise. I tried to gasp for air as I tumbled, but the pain was so intense I felt like I was about to black out. I was aware that I'd hit the sand, and I was blinking away the stars in my vision when I was grabbed gently, helped to turn over onto my side where at least I wasn't leaning on my injury.

"Joe, you alright?" I heard someone ask and I looked around, locking onto blue eyes so filled with concern it would have made me swoon, if I didn't feel like puking.

"Yeah..." I could blame being breathless on falling. "Thanks for helping me."

"We have to take care of one another," Sora said next to me, and I looked at her. She was smiling at him and I tried not to make a face. Why shouldn't she smile at him? I'm sure if I looked up, he would be smiling back at her. Like a boy should to a pretty girl.

"Tai!" I heard Izzy cry. Even in desperation and fear, the kid was quiet as a mouse. But it was enough to draw our attention to Shellmon, who was still screaming that dumb kid's show roar as it grabbed Tai with green tentacles that were growing out of it's head.

Seriously, that's gross.

Matt and TK were beside me still, the child whispering something fearfully as Tai gave a strangled scream, and I heard Sora say softly, "Only Agumon can help him."

The small dinosaur, pinned under one of Shellmon's feet or hands or whatever it is Digimon have cried out, glowing with that same light we'd all seen before. The Shellmon made a confused noise, flinging Tai across the beach and stepping back as Agumon grew _huge_, towering over all of us to match the pink creature's size. He'd become a giant orange and blue striped T-Rex, with a helmet that looked like it was made from a hollowed out tree or something.

"Woah," I heard myself mumble, in awe of the sheer size of the thing. I thought the Digimon were big before, how would we _ever_ get enough food to feed him now?

He growled, a deep rumbled that sounded like, "Greymon!" and shot a blast of fire from his mouth. It slammed into Shellmon and the creature fell back, screeching and retreating to the sea. Tai picked himself up out of the sand and ran over to Agumon, or Greymon or whatever, cheering as he glowed and turned back into the compact dinosaur that was much easier to feed. He explained that he couldn't keep up the energy needed to stay as Greymon, and we all volunteered to let the Digimon dig into our rations. Better that they go to them that could protect us, I figured.

The other kids surrounded their Digimon, and even Gomamon had managed to haul himself out of the sea to steal a plastic wrapped meal, and I saw what remained of the phone booths. Yeah, they were busted up, but maybe the wires were still connected? I slipped away as quietly as I could and crouched near the most intact phone I could find. If I could just get a hold of my father, to tell him that everything was ok, then maybe this dread that had been welling up in my stomach since I'd left that morning would finally vanish.


End file.
